Can You Own Too Many Marines?

So a bunch of work and travel the last week and it is getting into the holiday season.  I always have the greatest intentions of getting lots of hobby time in this time of year and just never really do. 

Of course I have all the greatest intentions of still getting stuff done.  I'm stilling getting in some pick up games of 40k, largely with my bikes.  They are still a lot of fun and I am planning to go to the Vegas Open in Feb and plan on running them.

The Fantasy League has slowed down a bit.  A few guys are having trouble getting games in so things are a bit stalled.  I think we're going to start 'jumping' games around so this continues, but it means the painting requirement is probably going a bit out the window.  I really want to finish that army to a nice standard but it is hard to get motivated to do lots of Sauri and TG.  The good news is I have almost 2k painted now which is really great to get mostly wrapped up and I plan to get back to the rest soon.

But right now I've been taking on a new project, because we all know I can't keep away from starting new projects before I've finished others.

 So I've had a desire to do something with my drop pods, and I was thinking I might repaint my Templar too.  So I started dorking around with a couple of things and now I'm really wanting to flush out a complete Black Dragon army.

Now I'm not really in a big rush to finish up this army, so I thought I'd try some things that I haven't done before as a means of differentiating from past projects.  I figure that would be a good excuse to do this and try to logic it out as opposed to admit I'm just a frick'n addict.

So I'm trying a lot more lighting on the paint.  I plan on building lava bases and I have some test bases in the works now  I am not sure how much I like the dry brush of grey but I don't want to do lining like I did on my Templar.  But to me it just looks like a big mess.  I think I might actually airbrush grey on directionally then apply washes to darken them up, and I am going to get a test model in hopefully this weekend to try that.  I hope that works because I don't really want to dogo about blending grey to black as I've tried that before also and have not been super thrilled with the results (not to mention the time it takes).  But of course that is the fall back plan.

You can also see there is some conversions going on the model.  The horns and spikes are from Tyranids and I plan on doing them for the Assault guys.  I might do a few smaller horns on the heads or regular marines.

Also you can see the shoulder is custom that was made for me and I'm in the process of casting resin molds.  This shoulder was not the best so I figured I'd use it on this test model but it is nice to have that casted shoulder on there.  It is also hard to see but he has these 'wings' on the knee pad that I've been molding out of resin as well.

They don't come out all as nice but I think if I make enough I can get the pairs going that look correct together and that will be a nice effect as well.  It would have been great to have those details be more like the above picture but the things are so darn small it is hard to get bits that fine and my modelings skills are just not great either.

I also want to make some custom transfers...'cause hey why not.  So I'm hoping to apply a few next week to this guy to see how those come out as well.

So of course I can't just repaint much Templar because... well I'm like that.  So I can redo my pods but I needed to add a few bodies.

So I'm experimenting with resin and trying out a few models and doing some flashing.  I've proxied two games and they were both fun using Salamanders and Vulcan.  I have no idea how I'm going to make Vulcan but I figured I'd build some models first and see how that goes before I tackle his conversion.

Continuing Work On Lizardmen

So I've still been working on my Lizardmen after getting done with Feast of Blades.

I knocked out my Bastilladon.

I think he came out pretty well.  This whole army could use hilghlighting but this is pretty good for now.  I'll need to get back to doing some more work on the base too.

I also got the Terradons done as well.

I just need to figure out what I want to do with the bases.  They don't sit on these very well.  So I could just glue them to these, or I maybe try something else.  I'll probably just glue these and see how well they hold up I suppose.

I haven't dipped these yet but I'm working on getting up to 1500 and 1750 now.  So I needed some more Saurus.

And I painted up my Temple Garud Banner bearer who I think I will use as a BSB Scar Vet for some of these game.

I just can't see adding a Slann in until about 2000 points.  I mean I think he can work... but with what I have I think I'm going to wait until 2k.  At least that's what I'm thinking now... that might change with the next few games.

Speaking of I did get one more Fantasy game for 1250 against HE.  I thought I was doing ok but was anybodies game, until he failed a few key LD.

http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/10/28/fantasy-escalation-league-bat-rep-high-elves-vs-lizardmen/

I think we've seen more critical LD issues in these lower point Fantasy games than expected.  So that's why I'm thinking of getting that BSB in there to make sure my block sticks around as long as possible!

So Fantasy has been fun, and the bikes are pretty much ready to roll for any 40k tournament (minus a few Grav Guns to paint I think).  Plus my Tau are still quite good and I'm happy to play that anytime.

But I do still want to make some of the other armies work.  BA are in pretty rough spot.  Orks too though I think they can still be fun.  My Templar and BT are both ok but it is almost like they have the wrong bits for their new dex.  Then there is my 1ksons which are really still just frustrating.  They look great, and they can win some games... but they are so hard to play in all comer type events.

So right now I'm looking at my Drop pods and thinking about what to do.  I might spend some time and money to try to make something work there.  Though lord knows I could also use that time and money to get caught up on video games that I've not gotten around to playing.

So ya... that's where we I am right now with the hobby!

2013 FoB Open GT Game 6

At last, we've reached the last of these battle reports! 

Game 6- Dawn of War, Big Guns Never Tire

Yes another great looking army!  This time it's Michael's Imperial Fists with Blood Angels allies.

Wait what?  IF w/ BA on the top table?  Come again?  What madness is this?

Lysander
Chapter Master, Artificer Armor, Jump Pack, Shield Eternal, TH
Scout Squad, Snipers, Cloaks
Scout Squad, Snipers, Cloaks
4 Centurion Devs, Grav Cannons, Omniscope
5 Devastators, Missiles, Flakk

Dante
Corbulo
Sang Priest, Jump Pack, Melta Bombs, PW
5 Sang Gaurd
5 Sang Gaurd, 5 Infernus Pistols

So major props to Michael for having a very unconventional army and doing quite well with it!  His only loss had been to my early opponent Ken and his "I Can't Believe Its Not Brotherhood" Grey Knights.

Now there is some trickery going on with this army.  There is essentially a hammer and anvil to the army.  The Anvil is Lysander, Corbulo, and The Centurions.  They basically can march up the field just shredding most units (two with the Omniscope).  Lysander can tank wounds he wants to take, or for small arms fire he can Look Out Sir to Corbulo.  Corbulo has a 3+ save and 2+ FNP for himself.  So those shenanigans can tank a lot of wounds!

Then you have the hammer.  One Sang squad with Dante and the Commander and the priest.  This unit can drop down, fry something, then can again be resiliant due to EW commander for tough shots or Look Out Sir to Sang Gaurd who will have a 2+ save and 4+ FNP.

So you drive your anvil forward and your hammer comes down turn 2 (one hopes) and you smash the enemy in between them.  Now mix in some scouts in cover, another mobile Sang squad, and Tank hunting flier killing devastators and you've got a pretty good thing going.

BUT

Then you look at an army of Grav bikes and you cringe.  This army has a LOT of 2+ saves, and a lot of those have no Invul save.  FNP is great but you eventually fail a few of those.

So Michael's looking over and laughing knowing this is probably not going to go terribly well.  He's hoping a few other people do poorly and maybe he can score a few points to stay in at the top of the leader board.  I tell him we can grab a beer once the game is over!

We wins the roll to go first and it is also nightfight.  He puts one unit of scouts back on the back edge of a hill as far away from me as he can.  The Centruion anvil is right in the center ready to advance.  There are ruins on his right and he's got his other scouts and Devs in there so everyone has got some nice cover saves for the first turn.

I put both my Thunderfires in fortified ruins in my deployment.  I line all my bikes on the line, with the Command squad in the center, 3 grav units on the left and one grav squad and the flamer squad on the right.  I infiltrate my scouts a bit ahead of that right flank in another bit of area terrain.  I scout my command unit to be behind the center hill so he'd have to work hard to see me with the Cents.  I scout my right bikes up by my scouts to start harrasing his devs and scouts turn 1.  I send the left flank scouting up behind some other hills.  This pulls them a bit far to be effective on my turn but I want that cover save from the hills.  His Centurions could seriously mess them up turn 1, so I want to try to keep them alive.

Then I steal turn 1.

I kinda feel a bit crummy now.  I think on paper this game can't possibly have been lost by me (not to sound arrogant or like a jerk), but now I've stolen and it is like insult to injury.  Michael's laughing and being a good sport so we shake hands and get into the game.

My turn one and I figure I will just trubo boost that whole left flank further and deeper into his deployment.  Now I'm running 3+ cover (plus nightfighting) so they are not great targets for the Centurions.  I scoot my command squad just a bit on the hill, also minor turbo for cover.  My first Thunderfire shoots at his scouts on the left and just maims them.  I think I killed all but 1, and they broke off the board.  I think my other one shot at his devastators along with one bike squad on the right.  I ended up killing 3, and again I think he failed his LD and ran off the board.  My scouts and last bike squad shot at his other scouts killing a few if I recall.

In short a great use of the seize and terrible start for Michael.  Maybe I am just a jerk!

Michael's scouts shoots some bikes and maybe manages a wound.  His Centurions pretty much advance up and split fire at my Thunderfires.  The one that is only shot by the sarg makes all his 2+ saves, but the other is blown away by all the firepower poured into him.

My turn 2 and both my Storm Talons come in and gun for his anvil.  Likewise my 3 units of grav gun bikes on the left flank all close into 17.5", and my command squad pops over the hill with Prescience to be about 4" away from the anvil as well.  My right flank basically closes in on the scouts, and not surprisingly wipes them.

So it basically comes down to this shooting phase at the anvil.  My orbital bombardment is dropped on Corbulo and scatters, but rerolls to hit for 4 wounds.  He Look Out Sirs them all to Lysander, but poor Lysander fails 3 3++ saves!  My Grav guns light up the Centurions, and as I'm getting his flank he can't LOS the first batch that down the first Centurions.  Then Lysander tanks a few wounds before dying.  Then the second Cent goes down.  And finally with the last bit of shooting Corbulo bites it as well.

So at this point all he has are two Centurions who make LD and are 4" away from being charged by the commander.

Now Michael is all smiles, but he says 'Yep that is the game' and it is hard to argue.  My command squad probably makes assault and kills the Centurions.  Even if they don't make the assault the two Centurions can put the hurt down on one unit, then get smoked by Grav guns or the command squad on my turn 3.

Of course he still has his hammer and his other Sang gaurd squad as well.  The problem is they will be only shooting, and again at best they can damper two squads with shooting.  AT BEST lets say he's wiped out 3 grav gun units to the man.  My command squad can probably duke it out with the Centurions and his Hammer at this point, and my last two bike units can probably ice the other sang gaurd squad.

I think we could have played it out and it could have been close.  That's almost 1000 pts that is going to drop that is not to be taken lightly.

BUT

I probably would have made assault with the Centurions making one less threat on his turn 2.  There is no guarantee he would have gotten both Sang squads, but with BA it is likely.  And the chances of him really killing 3 bike squads on the bottom of 2 were pretty slim.  As it was I had first blood and warlord and it would be a miracle to not have line breaker, let alone table him.

SO we shake and I buy us a round of beer in the hotel bar.  We talk 40k, how fun the event was and Michael was a great guy to hang with for a bit.  The whole game took about 45 minutes so we had plenty of time, turned in our sheets and walked around checking out the other games.

That's how the games went down, I won this GT, and had a great time.  All of my games were all fun and all my opponents were good dudes I hope to play again!

Ed who I had the draw with in round 5 ended up beating Ken to also remain undefeated.  So he took 2nd and grabbed the 'Best General' with me taking 'Best Overall'.  Which is only a little funny because we had the same record, same sportsman score, and he had better paint.  So in some ways he was I think better 'overall'.  I on the other hand had 4 Massacres to get full points, so the more appropriate title would have been 'Best General'.  But of course overall was decided by battle points so that's just the way this worked out which is fine and was laid out from the start.

You can see the full results over at the Torrent of Fire site, which has some great data you can look at for this and other events.

http://app.torrentoffire.com/#/tournament/Feast-of-Blades-Open-GT/3/leaderboard

That's it, we've made it to the end of these reports!  I hope they were entertaining and informative and hope to see you all on the tabletop!

2013 FoB Open GT Game 5

Game 5- Crusade, Hammer and Anvil

On to game 5, now my 3rd game on table 1 with the other last undefeated player Ed and his host of Daemon Flying Monstrous Creatures!

Great Unclean One, Psy Lvl 2, Greater Reward, Exalted Reward

Fateweaver

10 Plaguebearers

10 Plaguebearers

10 Plaguebearers

10 Plaguebearers

Daemon Prince, Nurgle, Wings, Armor, Lvl 3,  2x Greater Rewards

Daemon Prince, Nurgle, Wings, Armor, Lvl 3,  2x Greater Rewards

Daemon Prince (CSM), Wings, Armor, Lvl 3, Black Mace

10 Cultists

Another amazing looking army and easy to see why it has gone 4-0 to get to game 5.  He's got a better paint score but I've got more victory points than him so this game can make or break best overall as well as best general!

Now by this point I've gotten a bit lazy on the picture taking.  Or I could try t play it off like I was completely focused on the game, which is pretty true now that I think about it.  Either way that's the only picture you get once again, so sadly you have to imagine how it looked.  Worse off much of this game is a blur to me.

One of the hardest parts of playing Daemons is it is basically near impossible for the opposing player to really understand what the hell is flying around out there.  Daemon players have to have a complete accounting system each game to keep track of all the spell and gifts each guy has.  A lot of time they make mistakes and forget things, so how is an opponent supposed to keep track?  In the end you just hope everything is legit and go for it, and in this game it was fine.  Yet that makes it hard to play against and even harder to recall exactly what happened in the game!  I don't blame the players for this, but GW really slowed down the game with this dex.

Still let me try to give a bit of an account of how this game went because it was probably the most fascinating game I played.

First he ended up getting to chose to go first or second so he GAVE me first turn.  That always throws me for a loop.  I put my scouts and Thunderfires on one objective in fortified ruins and lined the bikes on my line.  He then sets up the GUO in front of his 3 DPs with Fateweaver behind them all sitting in the ruins.  Of course it is night fighting so everybody is going to be basically getting a 2+ save.  The PBs will deepstrike and the cultists will walk on the board.

But it is too tempting to not hope the orbital bombardment can get lucky and one shot one of the DP (or all of them)!  So I prescience and scoot the bikes up with scout and turn 1 to the 17.5" mark or so and drop the OB.  It scatters a lot so I reroll.  This time it still scatters but clips the GUO and one DP.  To the surprise of nobody he makes both 2+ saves.  Rats!

My flamer squad and one other Grav squad I knew would be out of range, so rather than get to close to the FMCs I trubo boost them up the right side to head down toward his deployment.

I drop the rest of my Gravs and MM into the far left DP and actually manage two wounds.  So not a great start but I figure every wound will help in this game.

Now the problem on his turn his he starts going off with his FMC.  I think almost everyone had endurance, I don't think there was any Iron Arm but there were two or 3 psychic shrieks which is really bad for my army!  The Guo comes forward and two DPs  fly toward my main brick of bikes.  I make a few good saves from shooting but I pull off handfuls of bikes to Psychic shriek netting him first blood.  Fatey and his other DP go over to my two bike squads and do a few wounds.

My turn 2 and I get one Storm Talon on the board.  I drop him by the two advanced DPs and figure I'll just pour everything into the wounded guy and try to kill one off.  Sadly he makes every save and every grounding test (did uses Fatey's dice at least).  The squad that had turbo boosted scoots further to his deployment and takes some shots that do nothing.

His turn 2 and I think he gets two PB squad in now.  One squad scatters poorly and I get to put way in my back corner so it is pretty much out of the game.  The other lands right next to my scouts and Thunderfire.

I think one his two DPs dance around my bikes killing even more, and he endurances one of his wounds back (and would later gain the other back as well).  I think fatey decided to vector and start advancing to my 'home base' and the other DP killed even more bikes.

At this point I'm not feeling very strong on the game.  I've probably lost 1/3-1/2 my army and everything is feeling a little ineffective.  After a moment of 'well fuck' I decide to just go with it and have fun and try to laugh at the shape my army is in and just have fun.  It took a lot to pull myself out but I wanted the game to be fun.

So I get my last Storm Talon turn 3 and figure I'll put both on Fatey but he makes all his saves and grounding.  I decided to start racing what bikes I had left around his guo and over to his DP on my right flank.  The thunderfires obliterated the PBs near to them so that is my first real damage of the game.

His turn 3 and I think two critical things happened: he forgot endurance on fatey and the grimoire failed on him.  Fatey flies over to the scouts and he fries 4 of them and one leaps off a ruin but live and runs a bit off.  One PB comes down in the general area.  His DPs kill more bikes as the GUO lumbers around.  The cultist walk on in one corner and there is an objective closest to them but also my last remnants of bikes are not far away either.  I think at this point I have three depleted troop squads left and a good part of the command squad.

My turn 4 and I figure now is the only time I'm ever going to get a shot at Fateweaver.  It means putting one of my StormTalons in hover mode to get all the shots, but the gambit pays off and I kill him just barely netting me warlord.  I will not receive a goose egg for this battle!

The Thunderfires again elminate the PB squad which is nice for me.  My bikes shoot (and I think assault) his cultists to eliminate one more scoring unit and fall back a bit to the objective.

His turn 4 and his last  PB squad lands by my Thunderfires but this time they are in my fortified ruins, doh!

Now Ed I think has to make his biggest decision of the game.  Clearly my StormTalons and Thunderfires are the biggest threat to his PBs.  If he gets rid of them he has basically secured that objective.  The risk here is that if he spends a turn way down on my deployment zone he will not be zooming them back to where my bikes are hanging out to be effective until turn 6.  The GUO has advanced a bit to far to go back toward one objective.  

So he decides to leave one DP who is closest to the bikes to try to deal with them and sends two back toward my fliers, which he is able to put down pretty easily.  Fatey vector strikes one Thunderfire Techmarine dead and shoots my last scout to squash that last scoring element in my deployment.    So all I really have left is one Thunderfire by an objective with the PB about 6" away.  His Dp on the far edge kills one last bike squad, leaving me two scoring units left.  One is a grav bike and Attack bike, the other is just one biker!  I sitll have most of my command squad with all 3 Hqs however.

So my turn 5 and I've got some choices to make now.  I think about sending my command squad down turbo boosting toward his PBs but they would likely be intercepted by DPs long before they made it to shooting range let alone charge range.  So I decide to have my libby join up with the solo bike and ring my command squad the best I can around them.  I'm hoping I can ground the DP and the Command squad can just assault, but failing that I want to leave my bike with ANYBODY to help him survive.  I turbo boost my other unit toward the objective behind the GUO and just make range there.  My thunderfire scatters a bit but does eliminate 3-4 of the closest PBs to the objective.

His turn 5 and his PBs move just enough to make it to the objective.  Fatey kills the techmarine that was contesting.  The Guo and 2 other DPs start moving back to his deployement. 

His last DP manages to charge the libby and kill him in combat, then scrub biker fails his LD and flees off the board!  Curses!  Had he lived I could have hit and run off to... well I'm not sure what exactly... but curses all the same!

So as the game sits I still have one objective, linebreaker and warlord.  He's got one objective, linebreaker, and first blood.

He rolls and the game ends in a draw!  To me this is a massive victory from the jaws of defeat.

Now Ed has been a great sport the whole time, and he had won his last game because of a very similar 'needs to end on 5' roll.  So he wisely says 'hey I would have rather have won last game and drawn this game than lost last game and won round 5.'  Which of course is totally true for an event like this where W/L/D is important because of how many points we score.  A Draw is still 12 points to a Victory 18, while a loss is 6.  So points wise he netted 30 points those two games as opposed to 24 for a win and loss.

With battle points we both end up 16-16, so my 'lead' over Ed for overall remains the same going into round 6 with both of us still technically undefeated.

Now I've thought about this game a lot since then trying to figure out what I could have done better.  The fact that he kept all his creatures flying was a real problem, so I can't counter that!  If there were two things I might have tried differently it is the following:

1) Be more cautious turn 1.  I could have easily scouted backward on my turn and just burned turn 1.  Then I would guess he would fly forward with the 4 FMCs and I would hope to get the Storm Talons in and down one or two to pound them.  Of course if he rolled just as well that would not have worked.  Also it would have pinned me back more and he could have just deep striked all his PBs back on rear objectives.  So by moving forward I did put preasure on him... but I'm not sure that was the right move.

2) I should have just put all my HQs with the solo troop and not counted on downing the prince at the end.  That would have made that unit infinitely more survivable.  Had I downed the prince I could have still charged with the command squad I suppose.  With a little luck he wouldn't kill them all, or I could challenge with the apothecary maybe, and keep him stuck in combat for the win.

But hey it is game 5 and you don't always make the best calls.  Either way had the game gone on it was going to be a loss for me.  As it was we both continued on undefeated, which means we both moved on to play a round 6 against a player with one loss. 

Ed would go on to play my previous opponent Ken, and I remained on table 1 to face a really neat Imperial Fist/Blood Angel army!

Marines vs marines FTW!

Game 4- Emperor’s Will, Vanguard Strike

Game 4- Emperor’s Will, Vanguard Strike

2013 FoB Open GT Game 4

Game 4- Emperor's Will, Vanguard Strike 

So the start of day 2 and as expected I'm paired up with Ken's hilarious and excellent Grey Knight army!

I've lost a few sheets this being a week after the even and I'm sure more than a few details are going to be lost to me now!

Draigo

Coteaz

10 Paladins, 4 Psycanons, Psybolt Ammo, Apoth, CC upgrades!

1 Paladin 

6 Henchmen (Warriors?)

6 Henchmen

3 Henchmen

3 Henchmen

Dreadknight, Personal Terminator, Heavy Incinerator, Nemesis Greatsword

Dreadknight, Personal Terminator, Heavy Incinerator

Dreadknight, Personal Terminator, Heavy Incinerator

I'm probably missing more than a few upgrades but you get the gist.  It is a strong Draigo list but really the highlight of this army was how crazy awesome the conversions and painting was on this army!

I mean look at this thing!  There are crazy awesome conversions.  Draigo on a Unicorn, He-man, Skeletor, a Paladin in a wheelchair!  Comedy gold!

Plus this awesome banners referencing the hilarious and infamous flashgitz video.

So we're looking at 'hey let's not tie' mission and vangaurd strike and I rolled to go first.  In thinking about the game I was hoping he would shunt all the DKs forward and I could give them the Gravgun welcome :) and then a I could play the 17.5" game with the Paladins.  The henchman I figured were basically Thunderfire targets most of the game and I'd clean them up with whatever bikes I'd have around at the end.  All in all while the list is REALLY dangerous there is no denying this game on papers looks in my favor with all that sexy 2+ armor.

So I set my scouts and Thunderfires back on my objective and all my bikes up on the line.  I left my bikes with flamers on the far right flank.  He sets up the Draigostar on my left in front of all the bikes, puts all the DKs to grab some 4+ cover from the ruins and reserves the rest.

I make a scout move to pull most of the bikes to the left still conservatively so I'm mostly out of range of Draigo in case of the seize.  I send the flamer bikes farther around the right.  I figure they will either stay off on the side or be a target for the DKs if he doesn't play super aggressive.  Either way he doesn't get the steal and we're off!

I start turn one with Prescience, and shoot off my orbital bombardment trying to target the Paladin Apothecary because getting rid of him would be swell.  It scatters forward and only clips a few so I go for the reroll.  Sadly it scatters backward and just falls off the board.  I drop the Thunderfires on Coteaz figure a couple of lucky saves I could snag first blood.  Alas it is no good but maybe I land a wound somewhere.  I have the bikes at 17.5" away and unload every grav gun I can.  It turns out to be just enough to kill Draigo for a nice first blood and warlord and a big hit for Ken.  My bikes on the right scoot up a bit.

On his turn one he advances the Paladins and unloads on a bike squad in range and they are smashed up pretty good.  He conservatively keeps the DKs and hops one over to deal with the flamer bike squad.  The incinerator manages to kill two and they break out of assault range but stay on the board, which is pretty good fortune for me!

My turn 2 and I think both Storm Talons manage to come in and I prescience the command squad.  I lay into the Paladins with about everything I have and do a good clip of damage killing I think all the Psycannons and more.  I think I had advanced enough thinking I would charge in to avoid getting shot but with killing the 6 or so Paladins I'm too far out and no charges are made.

I think his turn 2 and he gets two of his henchmen squads in and they go hide on the objective in the ruins.  One DK wipes out my flamer bike squad.  I can't remember what the Paladins do here, shoot a squad but also fail a charge.

My turn 3 and now I'm just going into grind down mode.  Thunderfires work on henchmen which they pretty much shoot the rest of the game.  I think some bikes start swinging over to a DK and put on some wounds.  The command squad just goes into the last of the Paladins and I think I killed Coteaz in a challenge and we are duking it out there.

His turn 3 and I think his solodin and two henchman squad also come in this turn.  He puts the solodin back by his objective to fortify that position with what he can.  The DKs are in a bit of a pickle as they can go after bikes in midfield or start think about the next moves so I think he plays a bit conservatively and wants those shunts for later.  We stick around in combat with the command squad and paladins.

Basically the next turn 4 and top of 5 are a bit of blur.  In short I did clear off his paladins, including the solo pladin, I killed his acolytes off, and one of his Dreadknights.  He's managed to work down more troops and one of the DKs had moved up to flame my scouts off my objective before it had died.  If I recall he charged my Thunderfire and he saved a wound from the plasma but took his last wound from a flamer!

Now the end of my 5 looks something like this:  I've got one squad of about 3 bikes on his objective with some of my command squad over there to try to give some buffer.  My other objective has I think two bikes and my thunderfires sitting by my objective.  He's got his two DKs with shunts left and I think they are a bit dinged up but not in terrible shape.

So his bottom of 5 and he shunts each over toward an objective.  I've blocked his objective off pretty well so while he has torrent range he can't contest.  The other guy doesn't have the range to contest but his incinerator has torrent range on the bikes on my objective.  He torrents them but they make both saves.  He torrents my three bikes on his objective and he manages a wound but they make the LD a sit on it.

We roll for another turn but the game ends.

So while I had really put the hurt on him early this game was actually quite close.  If the dice gods had smiled on Ken that last turn both squads could have broke off objectives and ended.  But I did have warlord, first blood, and linebreaker, so that still would have been a victory for me.  Had the game gone on I think my command squad could have finished up one DK, but the other DK might have taken over the objective in my zone.

But as the game played out this was another 30-0 victory for the bikes.  Ken played really well against a matchup that was tough from the start, and it was bit of a bummer to get 0 points after in his first loss of the tournament.  

There was a 3rd undefeated player in this round and he was playing a local buddy that only had a draw at this point.  So we go take a look at this game and it comes down to a dice roll for turn 5 to end.  If it ends the undefeated players easily loses, but if it ends he's manage to contest one objective and hold his own... and it ends!  My buddy takes his first loss and my next opponent, Ed, remains undefeated going into round 5!

2013 FoB Open GT Game 3

Game 3- The Scouring, Hammer & Anvil
Jarid's cool looking Eldar with Tau allies and another themed Aegis!

Warlord- Farseer, Witchblade
5 Dire Avengers w/ Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannon, TL Scatter Lasers
5 Dire Avengers w/ Wave Serpent, Shuriken Cannon, TL Scatter Lasers
3 Jetbikes
3 Jetbikes
3 Jetbikes
2 War walkers- 2x Scatter Lasers
2 War walkers- 2x Scatter Lasers
2 War walkers- 2x Brightlances
Aegis w/ Quadgun

"Handy" Commander- C&C Node, MS Snesor Suite, Puretide Chip, Stim Injectors, Vectored Thrusters, Iridium Armor, 2x Shield Drones
Riptide- Early Warning Overide, Velocity Tracker, Ion Accelerator, TL Fusion w/ 2x Shielded Missile Drones
10 Kroot, Snipers
3 Broadsides w/ Missiles, 2x Early Warning, 1x Target Lock, 6x Missile Drones

Another great looking army that scored better on paint than I did.  We had both done really great our first two games so we got on to table 1.  Now table 1 was in a kinda 'roped off' section out in the lobby area.  Over there they were doing different streaming of various games, usually the top tables.  Thankfully not for the OpentGT!  At the time Frankie was playing Thomas (Goatboy) on a 'battle of the internet stars' on the Invitational table.  So at that moment I'm out in a special place, having done great my first two games, looking across at a really excellent and frightening list.

I was nervous as hell.  I told Jarid as much.  I don't know why exactly but I'm sure it was a little bit of everything.  I've mentioned I'm not the greatest general but table 1 is still table 1 so you can't argue with that.  So I took a couple of deep breathes and onward we went.

Another truly terrible picture to show the deployment.  He won to go first and set up his Aegis at the 24" mark and piled in behind it.  Now having played Tau I know how scary the shooting can be, but range can be a problem.  So I had a brilliant idea.

"I'll reserve/outflank as much as I can so he can't kill it all turn 2 and I'll be on him."

Pro tip- this is a terrible idea.

I thought if I could get 2-3 of my bike squads on the outflank and a Storm Talon or two I'll outright kill his Riptide and mangle his broadsides (never mind that I was ignoring all the drone buffer he had).  That turn I'll also charge my command squad forward so he'll have too many targets in his face to deal with at one time.

Frankie walked over as his game was wrapping up and looked at me like I had just pooped out of my mouth.  So I quickly came to the realization this was not probably the best idea.  I could have actually done THE EXACT SAME THING on turn 1, or simply wait around until turn 2 if you wanted the StormTalon's to come in as well.  Go figure.

The good news is the 4 and a 3 were in/near my deployment, the 2 2s were in no mans land and the 1 and a 3 were in his deployment.

Jarid has turn 1 and I've clearly backed myself up.  He overcharges his Riptide and fails, taking a wound.  He scoots his left Serp up but I think is out of range or I just make all the saves on the Command squad.  He keeps his right serp back a bit, but moves his walkers up to at least get range on my Thunderfire.  After all the saves I think I only took a wound on the Thunderfire.

My trun 1 and I just shift some bikes around backfield.  I drop the Oribital bombardment on his warwalkers but it scatters clipping only one or two so I greedily reroll with Prescience.  This time it scatters back on the riptide and his drones.  This causes 3 wounds and his riptide takes them all and fails all his saves!  So he's down to 1 wound!  So then I unload my Str 6 shots at the warwalkers on the right and manage to kill them all.  So a nice start for me and first blood.

His turn 2 and I think he gets one of his jetbikes squads and his Kroot outflank next to my bikes.  They kill two bikes including one of the flamers but they hold.  My Thunderfire makes saves, and I think both his serps advance to start putting shots on my Command squad but I make most (if not all) of my saves.  His quad gun is the only thing that has range out of his mega Broadside/Drone/Commander/Farseer squad but even that and the Riptide don't really dent the Commander and his cohorts!

My turn 2 and of all my reserves I only got the one bike squad.  It comes on the riptide side and I foolishly am hungry to finish his last wound.  Unfortunately he has just enough interceptor to kill the squad dead.  If I had another unit or two maybe that would have worked, but alas!

My Thunderfires kill of his other two warwalkers and I shoot the kroot but amazingly a small few live (I think they went to ground) and make their LD.  Because they were in a long line and I killed most I fail my assault with my flamer squad.  Also my snipers moved on from reserve as well looking to advance on the ruins to claim and objective later.

His turn 3 and his other two bike squads arrive.  They are just scooting around the back objectives now.  His left Serp advances in front of the ruins and lays into the command squad, maybe doing a wound or two.  His Serp on the right turbo boosts to be up near my Thunderfire.  The kroot I think shoot the bikes and fail to kill anybody.  His Riptide and quad gun can't shoot because they intercepted.

My turn 3 and again only one of the 3 squads of bikes arrive but both Storm Talons come in as well.  I basically tuck them behind the ruins on the left so his guys can't intercept them.  I keep the Storm Talons out of range of the interceptor of the Broadsides but the Quad and Riptide fire enough to kill one Storm Talon.

Things in these middle phases get a bit fuzzy.  I think Storm Talon glanced his left Serp, and the outflanking bikes made it explode, and the Tunderfires were working on jetbikes.  I think the bikes on the right killed the kroot.

I think now on his turn 4 he made a tank shock on at least one of my Thunderfires and that killed the gun.  His DA got out to finish of my small bikes but I think they made their saves.  The other DA were shooting at my outflanking squad with a jetbike squad and killed one or two but they held.  I think his wave serp cleaned out my scouts.  The Broadsides, Quad, and Riptide couldn't do much.

My turn 4 and both remaining bike squad come in my left, but I decide I should keep them back on my deployment to help grab objectives.  The bike squad I have left on the forward position goes after his DA squad and kills them in CC but that leaves me in the open.  I think my last Thunderfire and Storm Talon tries to work the last bike squad or two down but there is at least one bike left.  I start inching my command squad at his line to be another target for them.  I think my last tiny bike squad charges his DA in my deployment and they end up losing combat and flee off the board.   My walking around Techmarine goes into CC and pops his last Wave Serp.

His turn 5 and I think he didn't take the bait with the command squad and his super broadside unit fires at my bike squad that were left in the open.  They are slaughtered.  I think his Riptide ended up shooting at my other Thunderfire and ended up killing them knowing to reduce the threats to his lone jetbike.  I beleive he is able to quad gun the Storm Talon dead as well, meaning I have 0 chance of getting to the last jetbike baring 2 more turns.  His DA in my deployment I think killed the walking around Techmarine.

My turn 5 and my two remaining troops move toward objectives and shoot his remaining DA in my deployment dead.  I send my Command squad zooming up toward his line in case the game goes to turn 6.

At this point he can't win but he can deny points.  He seperates his Farseer to stand alone on the quad gun who pop a few of my troops but they hold.  His Broadsides and commander actuall advance and form a wall in front of the command squad.

Now his first really terrible luck comes in to play, and in actuality we did this wrong I think.  He takes a dangerous terrain test for his drones hoping off the hill.  Again I think most of us were thinking it was like area but they should have been open.  Regardless he loses one and fails his LD and the Riptide breaks backward a bit.  It still takes some snap shots and maybe kills a bike.

In reality the break seemed big at the time but I'm not sure what he could have done if he hadn't.  Charge the command squad?  Yes please!  Certainly shoot the big blast at troops, hoping to finish or break them.  But with one other squad left I could have hoped on my 4 pt objective and still won.

Al the same that was a silly mistake I didn't realize until much later.

My turn 6 and I turbo boost the troops into circles around the objectives realizing the Riptide could still break them with a turn 7.  My bikes charge his lines but of course can't get to the farseer due to the wall so I could challenge him with Khan!

I challenge and his Commander refuses.  I will a lot of drones to his wounds and he fails LD and I run him down.

Pre rundown!

I look for turn 7 but he points out we have only 7 minutes so we call it a game and start chatting about the game.  A bit later I think 'I bet we could have gotten through the turn'.  He had his riptide left fleeing, farseer on the quad, and a jetbike.  The jetbike isn't going to do jack!  The farseer at best shoots.  And the Riptide while not supposed to be breaking can rally and shoot at troops hoping to kill a squad.  My turn I would send Khan at the Farseer, the Commander at the Riptide, and the remaining Command squad to shoot (if not charge) the last bike.  I think we could have done it in 7 minutes.

So I roll a dice and it was a 3 so the game would have ended anyway!  Still it is a 22-6 Victory as I could not get that last damn jetbike or the cunning farseer.

The day ends and we pack it up and chat a bit about the event and have some laughs which is always great.  I think both of us did not play our best game, but in the end I had more things go right and the denial tactic worked ok if not how I intended.

Using the Torrentoffire.com site I see I'm still rooted in first, and should start the day against a GK player who I chat with before heading to dinner.   He turns out to not be excited to play Gravgun bikes in the morning!

2013 FoB Open GT Game 2

Game 2- The Relic, Vanguard Strike
Matt's terrific looking Eldar army with a very cool Aegis for Eldar!

Warlord- Avatar
Spiritseer
5 Wraithgaurd, D-Sythes, Wave Serpent, TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields
5 Wraithgaurd, D-Sythes, Wave Serpent, TL Scatter Laser, Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields
6 Rangers
Crimson Hunter
2 Warwalkers, 2x Scatter Laser
Wraithknight w/ Suncannon, Scatter Laser
Wriathknight
Aegis w/ Quad Gun

First take a look at how cool the army looks on that display board.  Each model has the bases matching and sunk into the diplay board.  I've tried doing this with my BA but this make my attempt look like a Kindergarten project.  It just looks fantastic.

I'm looking at his list and I'm looking that the mission and I'm feeling pretty good.  He's got the fire power that I'm worried about those first turns and the wraithgaurd I don't want to be close to with the D-Sythes.  Yet I have to keep his Wraithguard from getting the relic and possibly getting back into a Serp and flying away.  So one way or another I'm going to have to move to mid field even if I'm not looking to grab the objective right away.

The board we are on is nothing but hills, but the tournament was saying that all hills gave 4+ for being behind and 5+ on top, but were NOT area terrain and did not count as difficult terrain.

We won the roll off to go first and set up with most of his army in front, and his 3 big mamajammas ready to advance on my position.

I decide I will leave my scouts and Thunderfire way in the back on a hill, and put the rest of my troops on my far left.  I leave the Command squad in the middle.  I figure I will let them soak up the firepower and try to keep the troops rolling through the left flank.  I also decide to outflank my flamer squad as they clearly aren't going to good against anything but his soft rangers, so 2/3 of the time I should come out on the side to work on them.

For my scout move I just move a bit forward, keeping most of my troop bikes claiming a cover save from hills as he's got some AP boo boo on the WKs.

Then I steal turn 1.  I think at that point we both know this game probably went from 'probably in my favor' to 'heavily in my favor.'  Its like when you watch Texas hold em on TV and you see one guy has a good hand, one guy has a slightly better hand, then the flop comes and that better hand is now amazing.  Sure he could lose but the chances go way way down.

So now I pull forward to start blasting big guys and this is the end of my movement phase.

So the first thing I want to work on is the WK since he's got no cover save.  He goes down to two squads worth of shooting.  In fact I had now had grav guns that couldn't shoot at the Avatar because I thought it would take more to bring the WK down.  As it was with what I did have in range I brought the Avatar down to 1 wound remaining.

As if I could not be a bigger jerk I also had my blasts.  The orbital bombardment and Thunderfires ended up killing his War Walkers and glancing his left most Wave Serpent to death.

So I stole turn one and killed 1/4 of his army, but he kept a stiff upper lip and gave it a go.  His Wraithgaurd were out of range so they advanced up beyond the wall if I recall.  The rest of his fire pours into my command squad but I don't think much happens due to armor and jink saves.  I think he did shoot some of my troops also and one unit might have even broken.

I continue to be a jerk as his Avatar then assault my troop unit on the hill.  With 1 wound left he risks being overwatched to death, but despite a few hits he makes his saves.  Then he gets ready to swing when I have to say 'wait you are Init 1.'  At first I thought that was just the hill but that was actually open, so we biffed a few rules at the moment but thankfully the results were accurate.  It was actually from being Concussed by the Grav guns.  Also his assault through cover was not cover but he made it anyway, so it worked out though I feel bad that at the time the rules were mixed up despite it not really affecting the game.  I land two Grenade hits and he fails his armor save and dies.  Obviously I don't want to be a jerk so I keep a straight face even though there are fireworks and parades going off in my head.  Matt was just having one of those games were everything goes wrong and the last thing you want to see is the guy across the table doing cartwheels.

My turn 2 and I think both Storm Talons arrive.  He quad guns them and like game one I only suffer a glance I think.  My bikes with flamers also arrive and do show up next to his pathfinders.  Between them and the Thunderfires I end up killing 5 pathfinders and the seer in shooting leaving one guy to stand around.  The fliers pepper his last Serpent and I think land a glance or two.  I can't recall now if my bikes on the left shot/finished the Wraithgaurd that had no transport, but I know mentally I had concluded they were out of the game.  With their short range I was going to be backing up and shooting them at my leisure.  I think my one squad that had killed the avatar were able to make range on the last WK and pop a wound or two.  My command squad goes into CC, and with Prescience my Commander and Libby are able to finish him.

Matt's turn 2 and his Hunter doesn't show up.  His pathfinder jumps on the quad gun and shoots something.  I don't even remember what at this point, I think he killed a Storm Talon.  His Serp scoots up to midfield and dumps the Wraithguard out next to my command squad.  They murder them with reckless abandon, and it wasn't even like they were a little dead.  They were totally and completely dead 3 times over!

Matt say's 'there's my morale victory' and is ready to call the game.  We survey the board.  Clearly I'm going to kill his last pathfinder.  The Wraithgaurd are probably dead to a million grav shots.  Maybe the serp escapes but to what end?  At that point he's got his Crimson hunter that can annoy me the following turn but realistically I fly my Storm Talon off the board so it doesn't die and it kills the Hunter the following turn.  I would be grabbing the relic and tabling him in the next two turns with very little losses.

So this game ends even quicker than the first, with a 30-2 score in my favor.

In talking to Matt afterward he said he had some 40+ games of practice with the list, and the only losses he had were to lists that looked very similar to mine.  He handled the loss graciously and we agreed the steal was huge.   He said he might still not have won, but it certainly would have been closer, and I doubt I would have had the Massacre as well.  I jokingly suggested we had time to run it back but Matt said he had his fill of the Grav bikes so we shook on it and took a nice break before round 3.

My next game moved me out to table 1 to play Taudar!

2013 FoB Open GT Game 1

So calling this post a battle report might be a bit of a misnomer, but certainly I can give a quick synopsis of my games.  I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was worried about time, though this almost never really would have been a problem.

Game 1- Purge The Alien, Dawn of War
Michael's Grey Knights w/ IG Allies- a great looking army with Forgeworld platforms and a Skyshield!

Warlord- Malleus Inquisitor Terminator, Psycannon, Psycher
10 GK Terminators w/ Upgrades
5 GK Strike Squad w/ Upgrades, Razorback, HB w/ Psybolt
DK, Heavy Incinerator, P. Teleporter
DK, Heavy Incinerator, P. Teleporter
Lord Commisar
Giant Platoon Blob w/ 4 Sabre TL Lascannon Platforms
3 Heavy Quad Launcher  Platforms
Vendetta
Skyshield

Now this game is the first of several and now a few days (and a quite a bit of beer) later so some of the details are hazy or possibly wrong so forgive my lack of details.

The board we were playing on was covered in forest.  It looked great but was pretty difficult to navigate around while playing.  While I wasn't worried about terrain for the bikes we were using the Mysterious forest results and I was worried about those as some can be terrible.  As it turned out everything we identified were Ironbark or Spinethorn, so relatively good for cover and no ill effect.

I believe I won to go first and so deployed my bikes in a long row right on the 12" line.  He set up pretty much dividing his force with all of his guard on or around his Skyshield, and then all of his GK off to the right.  I then decided I would scout my way to pull over to the IG and try to skirt as much shooting from his GK as I could do.  He didn't steal and it was my turn 1.

I think continued to move my bikes up to concentrate fire on his IG.  I know they have a 4++ invul but they are still guardsmen and I wanted to try to think out some of those big guns.  Each Quad launcher is 12 (!) Str 5 small blasts.  The upside was I'd get armor and they had a min range so my plan was to close with those as fast as I could.

After movement I remembered to snap a picture.

When all the ordinance and bolters (and even a few grav guns) were done I had obliterated his platoon and infantry squad (minus one I think was in the Vendetta) as well as commisar for First Blood and had taken a few bodies off several of the artillery (I think the two Sabre platforms on top of the platform got wiped) but not enough to stop the incoming shots.

His turn 1 and unfortunately his Termies rolled poorly and were not able to really advance enough to pummel my squads.  His Dreadknighs did shunt up and were able to fry most of my command squad, I think only the apothecary was alive.  His artillery did lay the hurt down.  I made a ton of saves.  Still I pulled a half dozen more bikes out spread between several squads but none of them were down for the count.

My turn 2 both Storm Talons arrived, and I positioned them in such a way that his Sabres under the Shydhield either had no shot, or would grant the 4+ save from the legs.  I sent my cheap flamer squad to charge the guns on the ground floor, and sent another squad to shoot at the Quad guns.  I thought that with them, the Storm Talons, and the Thunderfires I could wipe them out, but he still had guys to shoot two guns at me.   I poured Grav guns into the DKs and killed one out right, and I can't recall if I killed the other one in shooting or combat with the command squad and was able to still back away from his termies.

His Termies turn 2 advanced better and his strike squad lept from the Razorback to pour fire into the command squad.  I had the 2+ commander up front and he took bullets like a champ.  I think he might have just died but only barely.  His Quad guns pummeled more bikes but with only two it was not as effective.  I think I lost one of my squads to the fire.  His Vendetta came in and shot at my StormTalon but only managed one glance amazingly.

My turn 3 and things started going really south for him.  I poured Grav guns into his strike squad and termies and just murdered them.  I think he had a few guys in each squad but not much, and of course I was still at a far charge range with cover in between us.  My thunderfires were able to kill the last of his Quad guns I think, and the vendetta died to the stormtalon crashing and killing most of his Infantry squad.  I can't remember now but I think one of those 3 squads left might have even run off the board.

I dont remember if we played the bottom of the turn or not but about that point Michael was ready to call it.  He had claimed two Kill points but I had killed off most of his army.  There wasn't going to be any coming back from it and even trying to stop the full Massacre would have been near impossible as I had Warlord, First Blood, and would easily claim linebreaker.  So this game went down for me with a 30-0 Win.

Michael was a bit down about his army list but I thought it was still a good list, just a bad matchup.  It is always hard to take a beating and then hear encouraging things from your opponent but I wished him well and caught up with him several other times during the event to see how things were going.  He ended up going 4-2 which is certainly respectable in my book!

Next up for me was Eldar!

Feast of Blades Open GT 2013

So this past weekend I went out to Feast of Blades in Denver and played in the OpenGT.  This is the first time I've ever really traveled for 40k outside of local events (ie driving a few hours).  Now I travel a lot for work, and I've had family vacations (which honestly should be called traveling with small children instead of vacations), but this was a new experience for me.

So now after returning I'm trying to gather up all of my thoughts on this really cool weekend and process everything that happened.

I HAD A GREAT TIME

I traveled with Frankie and I swear we laughed so much this weekend that it feels like I must have been doing situps.  There were times we were just killing each other with some of the funniest jokes.  Maybe it was the altitude but it was great to hang with a buddy and not have to worry about coworkers/wife/kids.

I drank quite a bit, I slept not enough, and I pretty much ate like crap.  Pretty much everything I always thought would happen traveling for a GT!

It was also really cool to hang out with some other guys I've only really met once or twice; guys who write on blogs that you read, win events that you day dream about going to someday, and are some of the prominent 40k players in the US who in their own way help shape our hobby and it's community over the last several years.  Of course they are super cool guys and they don't have anything to prove so you meet them and realize internet fame is kinda silly in the first place.  All the same I think of myself as just a hobbyist.  So it neat to get to hang with those dudes and think 'damn this is super cool, try not to act like the total dork that you are.'  Even though, in the end, there is no denying we are all dorks!

Which brings me to the actual OpenGT and the Invitational itself.  The Invitational of course has all these top notch guys,and it is pulling from all over the US.  It was some 120-ish people who had won qualifiers, the event is pretty much W/L, with Sunday brackets based on record being made so you could win your bracket.  There are no softscores and no paint requirement outside of 3 color min.  There were some great looking armies, and plenty of not finished painted armies as well.  However I'd say 60-70% were some kind of Tau, Eldar, or mix.  Next most popular was probably Daemons.  There were several marine flavors of course, but really it was totally lopsided.

The OpenGT was quite a bit different.  There was a softscore for paint and sportsman.  They used the Massacre/Victory/Draw/Loss/Massacred for Battle Points as well.  There were only about 46 people for the event and I would wager most folks were in driving distance (though I know some folks drove 10+ hours).  The OpenGT was billed as a playing for fun vs win at all cost of the Invitational.  Sure there were eldar/tau and deamons, but there was far more variety of armies than the Invitational had.  I'm not sure if being 2k, allowing Forgeworld or Double Force Org really reinforced that theme, but that's what was cooking on our side of the room.

Now of course everyone wants to win.  I didn't get out to any of the Qualifiers in the first place, but I don't even know how I feel about playing in the Invitational.  The OpenGT is more my style anyway, but playing lots of 40k all weekend should be about having fun either way!  I'd also wager that most of the players at the OpenGT were on par with the bulk of the Invitational players as well, you just lacked the guys that are the normal names you see at the top of other big 40k events for the most part.

The event was totally smooth for that size!  They were using the Torrent of Fire (http://www.torrentoffire.com/) folks to do the scores and while there are a few challenges of navigating the webpage you can see where that is going to continue to mature and be really even more amazing!  They also had a neat system to get 'purity seals' for other prizes by accomplishing neat tasks in your games.  For example taking over a quad gun and downing a flyer.  So even if you were doing terrible you could still get these things and if nothing else earn these badges of honor.  I only managed two and Frankie three, but I saw some guys walking around with 8 or more of the things!

Who doesn't love rewriting lists?

MY LIST WAS SOLID

So I have about 7 40k armies, I bounce around a lot, and I think I'm addicted to writing and rewriting lists.  Usually I don't play the same army at two consecutive tournaments.  I played Tau at the Golden Throne recently, and my bikes at the BAO before that.  I took my Imperial Fists as Dark Angels to Celesticon right before the Marine dex launched .  I even took my Thousand Sons out to Kublacon this year!

I really enjoy playing my bikes.  Tau perform great (duh) but also boring due to basically being a static gunline army.  Bikes offer flexibility and the new marine dex has made them better and cheaper.  I've basically been playing them more than any other army since just before 6th edition, which also just happened to have made bikes quite a bit better!  So I've probably had more practice with them as an army and have been refining things more than any other tournament list I've run. 

This is what I settled on for the event.

WHITE SCARS
Khan on Moondrakkan
Chapter Master on Bike, Artificer Armor, PF, Shield Eternal
Command Squad on Bikes w/ Apothacary
4 bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike w/ MM, 2 Gravguns, 1 Combi Grav
4 bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike w/ MM, 2 Gravguns, 1 Combi Grav
4 bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike w/ MM, 2 Gravguns, 1 Combi Grav
4 bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike w/ MM, 2 Gravguns, 1 Combi Grav
5 bikes w/ 2 Flamers
Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer Missiles 
Stormtalon w/ Skyhammer Missiles
Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon

DARK ANGEL ALLIES
Librarian lvl 1 on bike, Power Axe
5 Scouts, Snipers, Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks

I felt like this covered everything I would need.  I had anti air, anti horde, anti 2+, 6 troops, and not a lot of killpoints.  I wasn't sure how well I would do against vehicles but figured I would do ok there.  As it turns out I played a for fun practice game against 5 Land Raiders Friday night and won that game!  So I guess it can deal with vehicles also.

Not to get ahead of myself but I'm not sure what I would change in retrospect.  I get why people want to put even more grav guns on the command squad but then it just makes that unit even more expensive and it is already a bit of a hammer with the 3 HQs.  I've been using it as ablative wounds and just having that 5+ FNP for those HQs.  However with the Commander tanking wounds and you usually driving it at the toughest thing in the enemy list that change does make sense.  I could also see dropping the Command squad entirely for another bike squad just to get more scoring and almost as much firepower and just give up on the FNP.  The flamer squad was a cheap filler squad that was useful but certainly more grav guns could have been put to use also.  The DA libby is neat and nobody argues with the value of Prescience.  I get why people are into the Rune Priest on a bike and that could have been helpful for sure with Daemons or had I run into bugs.  The scouts were just filler and didn't really do much though I do like the infiltrate flexibility.  However 5 SW Grey Hunters would have been about as useful.

In the end all these changes might be helpful or might not so eventually you just decide and go and hope your match-ups play out in your favor.

MY MATCH-UPS WERE LARGELY IN MY FAVOR

I've always said that 40k tournaments are largely about luck of the draw.  This is especially true in a one day 3 game event.  I had only done a few two day events, so I think it still holds true but probably less so.  I don't really have a big enough sample size to say for sure.

But certainly reflecting on this weekend I had matchups that worked out in my favor right of the bat when you look at things on paper.  I don't know if this can be what people call the meta of 40k or just dumb luck, but either way consider the following statements.

A) I brought a heavy Grav Gun list, so I'm obviously looking for 2+ armor or 3+ with high toughness.

B) Over the course of my 6 games I fought the following PRIMO targets for Grav guns: 5 Dreadknights, 10 GK Terminators, 10 Paladins, Draigo, 2 Wraithknights, 10 Wraithgaurd, the Avatar, 1 Riptide, 3 Broadsides, 3 Daemon Princes with 3+ armor, 4 Centurions, Lysander, Dante, and 10 Sanguinary Guard.

So just let that sink in there.

I'm not going to say the list I have is all that.  There are some really tough match-ups I think I dodged and games I played that were real nail biters that could have gone either way.  However when you consider what I brought and what I played against I'm not sure what more I could have really asked for in the end.  

Someday I will not use an iPhone as my camera.

I'M NOT THE GREATEST PAINTER BUT I'M GOOD ENOUGH TO COMPETE

I've won best painted a few times at local events and cons.  GTs are of course much different, and really spectacular armies show up for an event like this where painting counts for 20% of your score.  I'm happy with the way my bikes look but they are not my best painted army by far.  Still I put the wrench time in on them and they do look nice and are a cohesive looking army.

Painting was judged after the first round and I scored a 33 out of 40.  They had a painting matrix and I don't disagree with the score at all.  However I'm pretty sure all 6 of my opponents all scored higher than me.  Some of the armies I played were amazing!  Some were just more detailed, or had better airbrushing work, or just more features than I put into the bikes.  But in reality even the guys that scored perfect were only getting a few more points than me in the overall score.

I'm not sure how the sportsman thing worked out but I think pretty much everyone probably maxed out points.  You never really want to lookover if your opponent dinged you but most of us were ticking all the positive boxes because win or loss everyone I played was playing 40k and nobody was being a jerkface or anything.  I get why they have the score there but I can't imagine anybody losing more than a point or two unless someone was just flat out being an asshat.  But all of my opponents were really nice guys, I certainly tried to be my normal friendly self and I tried to catch up with everyone throughout the event to see how things were going.  I hope I see them all again at future events.

Apparently I like toddler memes today!

 I PLAYED WELL

I made mistakes also.  There were a few poor decisions I made that made some games harder for me.  There were other games that I'm not sure I could have played better.  I made my opponents make tough choices.  I made tough choices that played out well for me.  Certainly my dice came up for me more often than not: it is still a game a chance and chances were taken.

I had never thought about my GT record before someone brought the topic up over the weekend.  Now some of these guys have played a ton of GTs, but I've only played at 4 (2 BAOs, and 2 Golden Thrones).  So my record before this weekend is pretty easy to figure out, 14-11-1.  Certainly not terrible but nobody is going to confuse me with an elite player.

I can't (or will not) say I'm a great general, but I know I've been playing more games against different tough armies over the last year and a half that have made me a better 40k player.  That's not easy to do with everything else in life going on and not everyone can get that practice in or go to tournaments.  I'm sure this is why those top tier guys are up there on top table regularly.  They play a lot and they have seen all the tricks and traps.  It is hard to be as good as the guy that plays more than you do unless perhaps you are a tactical genius.  I'm not, so the practice helps, and even then I'm as fallable as the next guy to get discouraged when I think I'm losing.

I think the two greatest things I've picked up from playing from playing with Reece and Frankie at Frontline Gaming is A) play to the objectives even when you are losing because sometimes it just works out and B) don't forget it is a game and it is more enjoyable when you can laugh at things when they don't go your way.  Winning or losing its about having fun.  Beer helps too (but I've known that for quite awhile).

SO I WON A GT!

Even writing that it seems a little weird.  Should I feel different?  It is partly surreal to think I did so well, and partly I feel like it doesn't carry as much weight as I thought it would to say such a thing.  Maybe because it was more a hobbyist event by nature, or you know the Invitational going on at the same time really has the top tier generals.  It doesn't really matter.  I was never thinking I was going to win, I went to have fun, but like I mentioned earlier everyone wants to win.

In the end I went 5-0-1, and the gentlemen I drew with also had a 5-0-1 record.  The draw was the toughest game and of course came down to the dice roll continuing to turn 6 or not.  I ended with more points so claimed the Best Overall title and he took 2nd and Best General.  I think had I only suffered a loss to his Victory I might still have had more overall points (assuming game 6 turned out the same for us) and we probably would have been given the same awards.  Of course who knows how game 6 could have been paired differently or whatever.  Things worked out the way they did.

I won a couple of KR cases which are really cool.  I have a lot of the Sabol transports which are also great, but obviously the metal KR cases would probably do better on a plane.  Given I'm going to try to do one or two of these a year I hope I can put them to use!

I also got a neat trophy that has LED lights and is a nice little award.  I've picked up a few little awards now (mostly for softscores!) that I've been putting next to the armies in my display case.  My home office is really looking like "Dorkville, USA Population 1" but I don't really care!  It's my hobby and I love it even with its problems.

DID I MENTION I HAD A GREAT TIME?

Thanks to the guys who threw the event.  Thanks to my buds new and old for helping me be a better player.  I appreciate my wife's tolerance (best word I can think of) for my hobby.

I will do another post that goes over the games I played and roughly how they went.  I felt like in many ways the experience of this weekend was actually more interesting than the actual games themselves.  I'm never going to be able to give detailed battle reports but I'll give a ditty for each game and give another shout out to all the great guys I played this weekend!